Man, 23, spends thousands on the world’s biggest Mr Men collection… and now plans to open a theme park

THIS is the man who’s splashed thousands of pounds on the world’s biggest Mr Men collection – and now he plans to open a Mr Men THEME PARK.

23-year-old Ben Daly has spent nearly two decades collecting anything and everything to do with the childhood classic – and now he’s got almost 3,000 items in his impressive collection.Ben and his parents, Kate and Jerry, have spent the best part of £20,000 on the collection over the years – and Kate has even taken out special insurance for it to the tune of £35,000.

Ben, who has autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, fell in love with Mr Men after mum Kate starting reading them to him when he was just a tot – and he’s been obsessed ever since.

Ben, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, explained: “Mum used to read me the books, as she had loved them as a child – she said they were the only thing she could draw easily!

“Since then I’ve been hooked.-read more

Where is the Small Tortoiseshell this summer?

Gardeners are being asked to focus on their flowerbeds this Bank Holiday to look for one of the UK’s best-loved butterflies whose numbers appear to have plummeted this summer.

The beautiful Small Tortoiseshell is one of the most recognisable and widespread UK species and is a regular garden fixture in high summer.

But this year, numbers have been worryingly low as the cool spring and slow start to the summer appear to have taken their toll on the butterfly’s attempts to breed and feed.

Small Tortoiseshell sightings are significantly down across the UK and gardeners are being asked to look out for the butterfly by joining the Garden Butterfly Survey, sponsored by B&Q, to help build a picture of what is happening.

The Small Tortoiseshell has endured a tumultuous recent history. The butterfly, whose population has plummeted by 73% since the 1970s, had seen its numbers rise over the last few years and hopes were high that it was on the path to recovery.

But this summer’s poor showing could mean the Small Tortoiseshell is set for yet more years of decline.

Butterfly Conservation Head of Recording Richard Fox said: “We don’t understand what is causing the drastic long-term decline of this familiar and much-loved butterfly. Theories involve climate change, pollution and parasitic flies that kill the butterfly’s caterpillars, but we need more information.

“If you see Small Tortoiseshells or any other butterflies in your garden, the Garden Butterfly Survey -read more

artificial kidney

now scientists have managed to develop a way to create a lab grown transplantable kidney by using a 3d cell culture and chemicals .the progenitor cells could be used to make replacement kidney tissue foe research and to treat disease.

no tv on itv

on the 27th august 2016  the television channel i.t.v decided to go off air for one hour to encourage people to do sport.but 60,000 viewers still watched the blank scene ,just goes to show people will even watch the dot.

Lightning Kills More Than 300 Reindeer in Rare Mass Death

More than 300 wild reindeer were recently killed by lightning at a Norwegian national park, officials say.

The Norwegian Environment Agency has released haunting images of reindeer—including 70 calves—that seemingly fell over where they stood in the grasses of Hardangervidda, the largest high mountain plateau in northern Europe.

The national park, the largest in Norway with wild reindeer populations, spans some 8,000 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) and is home to 10,000 to 11,000 wild reindeer.

While specifics on the lightning strike are still unknown at this time, it’s likely that the dead reindeer were a herd that huddled together to weather a severe thunderstorm that rolled through the area on Friday.read more

ex weirdweek survivor talks

Holsworthy, New South Wales

Holsworthy is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 31 kilometres south-west of theSydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool and partly in the Sutherland Shire.

Holsworthy is most notable for a large Australian Army reserve, Holsworthy Barracks, where training exercises are frequently carried out. The reserve is adjacent to Heathcote Road, which connects to Bankstown, Liverpool, Lucas Heights, Engadine andHeathcote. Signs on the perimeter warn potential trespassers of the use of laser guided and conventional gunfire.

The residential area is located north of the railway station. Anzac Village is a locality in the northern part of the suburb and the adjacent suburb of Wattle Grove. A new development called 'Mornington' has recently been built in this region. A shopping centre has also been built in this area.The area was named after Holsworthy, Devon, England, where Governor Lachlan Macquarie married Elizabeth Campbell, on 3 November 1807. It was originally spelt as Holdsworthy until after World War II, when the 'd' was dropped.^[2]

Originally the land belonged to the Tharawal people but following the arrival of the First Fleet, indigenous people were pushed back from their traditional lands in the area surrounding Sydney. In 1795, explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders explored the Georges River and in 1798, grants of land for farming were made in the area. The soil was good and crops of corn, wheat and vegetables were soon being harvested.^[3]

However, tensions developed with the Tharawal. In 1801, Governor King ordered soldiers to fire on the aborigines to keep them from settler's properties. By 1815, Governor Macquarie declared a state of open warfare against aborigines in the Georges River area and forbade them carrying weapons within a mile of any British settlement. Ultimately, the British prevailed.^{[4]-wiki link}

What we know about the Fundraising Preference Service... so far

Q Will all charities be blocked from sending fundraising communications to people on the FPS?

This is still undecided. George Kidd, chair of the working group deciding on the implementation of the FPS, indicated in February that he was not keen on having a model in which people could simply block communications from specific charities they disliked, saying he could not see how such a system would work. But at Third Sector's Fundraising Week conference in April, Stephen Dunmore, interim chief executive of the new Fundraising Regulator, said this was being considered. The regulator will be the body that manages the FPS, although Kidd has said the delivery will probably be taken care of by an external agency with expertise in data security.

Q What about existing supporters who sign up?read more

Large blue butterfly thriving after reintroduction

A rare butterfly once declared extinct in the UK is now being seen in record numbers after being reintroduced.

Conservationists said there was a population of more than 10,000 large blue butterflies on reserves in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

The last large blue butterfly colony was on Dartmoor in Devon and it was declared extinct in 1979.

The population in the UK is now believed to be largest concentration of the species anywhere in the world.

The butterfly, with a wingspan of more than two inches, was brought back from the dead with the reintroduction of stock from Sweden in 1984 and has thrived since then.

The key to the success of the programme was an understanding of the butterfly's bizarre life-cycle which is similar to that of the cuckoo.

The caterpillar tricks red ants into believing it is one of their own grubs and is carried underground.

It feeds on the larvae around it until it emerges 10 months later to live for just a few weeks as a butterfly.

Conservationists said the story of the large blue showed that the decline of globally threatened species could be reversed

european cave bear

a new research has found that the european cave bear became extinct due to vegan diet. wiki link

Smoking cannabis makes you lazy, study suggests

Smoking cannabis could make you lazy, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia gave the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main brain-affecting ingredient in cannabis, to laboratory rats.

They found this made them less willing to carry out a complex task for a large reward, with most opting for an easier one despite a smaller prize.read more

boars disorder in gloucestershire villages.

if you live linterford or yorkly village you may come across wild boars smashing into fences in search of food and ransacking wheelie bins .over a 1,000 wild boar roar the forest of dean in gloucestershire

Rare skeleton of a dodo is up for auction

A RARE skeleton of the extinct dodo is going under the hammer later this year.

It is the first to come up for auction for nearly 100 years and is already attracting widespread interest.

Summers Place Auctions in Stane Street, Billingshurst, believe the composite skeleton, which is 95 per cent complete, will be sold for a six figure sum.

It is rarer than the diplodocus dinosaur skeleton that was sold at the auction house earlier this year for £400,000.

Only one dodo skeleton exists that is made up from the bones of a single bird and the others, about a dozen, are composites made up from bones that belonged to several individuals.

Summers Place natural history curator Errol Fuller said: “Dodo skeletons are extremely rare.

“Most museums had acquired their dodos many years ago and no relatively complete skeleton has been put together since the early 20th century.

“This is an amazingly rare opportunity for the acquisition of one of the great icons of extinction.”

Bristol pirate Blackbeard's real name was NOT Edward Teach, American historian confirms

He is the world's most famous pirate, Bristol's finest and still notorious after 300 years, but now a definitive history of Blackbeard has claimed that the city has got it wrong.

Blackbeard's real name was Edward Thatch, not Edward Teach.

And not only has Bristol got the name of its most famous sons wrong all this time, but the city has misjudged the man – far from being a brutal and violent pirate, research now claims there is no evidence he ever killed or hurt anyone – apart from in the final battle where he himself died.

One of the world's leading historians, writers and researchers on the golden age of piracy – the seven or so years from 1712 when the Caribbean was effectively ruled by anarchic pirate fleets – Colin Woodard has written books on the subject and been the historical advisor on many a TV series and film.

But after visiting Bristol himself to research Blackbeard for a book called Republic of Pirates, he has broken the news that all the guidebooks, plaques, posters, notices on pubs and history books have been getting his name wrong all this time.

Blackbeard was from Bristol but was called Edward Thatch, and Mr Woodard said he found the first time a newspaper report - published in the Boston News-Letter - about the antics of the pirate got his name wrong, but it stuck.

"Of his life before, we still know very little," admitted Mr Woodard. "He went by Edward Thatch – not 'Teach' as many historians have said, apparently repeating an error made by the Boston News-Letter.read more

Holdstone Down-devon

Exmoor has the highest coastline on the British mainland, Holdstone Down peaks at 1150ft making it the highest on the North Devon coast path, and offers unbridled views of the coastline from Lundy Island in the west to Dunkery Beacon in the East. The high vantage point also allows views of the shadowy Dartmoor Tors to the South, and the industrious South Wales coast to the North.

Walking is short and easy through a high-level wilderness with ancient settlements and a history of spaceships and extra-terrestrial forces. UFO-spotters regularly gather on the summit of this ‘holy mountain’ and children will love the mysterious pebble arrows often left around the cairn by ‘alien’ visitors. An atmospheric walk in autumn, when the rust-coloured bracken is interspersed with banks of purple heather and the last of the butterflies browse among the brambles.also read

Spiderman is in North Devon - have you seen him?

SUPERHERO fans have an unusual reason to visit a small North Devon village as a famous web-slinging visitor has taken up residence there.

Mike and Julie Palmer, of Prixford, near Ilfracombe, have a life size model of Spiderman sitting outside the front of their cottage – and it has been attracting a lot of attention from passers byIt seems the resident hero has been doing good just by sitting on the spot, as Mike and Julie's two daughters, aged 7 and 9, have started charging 50p for visitors to have a photo taken with him.

They plan to donate all money raised to global children's charity Unicef at the end of the summer holidays.And the family said this was not the only positive effect of having the popular figure sitting outside the house.

They said they have also noticed a reduction in the speed of the traffic passing the house, as people slow down to get a good look at "Spidey"!

Badger culls to be extended to North Devon

BADGER culls will soon be taking place in North Devon according to the BBC.

It is believed shooting will start at the beginning of September.

North Devon is among five regions believed to have been chosen for new culls including South Devon, North Cornwall, West Dorset and South Herefordshire.

The Government has a 25-year-strategy in place to eradicate bovine TB, culling is one element of that strategy.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has neither confirmed or denied these areas will be the next to see culls but told the BBC it was looking at applications for new badger control licences.

However the BBC has reported culling companies have already been chosen and marksmen have been trained for new areas.

The precise locations of where culls will take place have in the past not been revealed because of the controversy surrounding the policy and the potential for attempts to be made by protesters to thwart any shooting.Responding to reports a decision has been made to extend the badger culls in areas like North Devon the CEO of the Badger Trust, Dominic Dyer, said: "After four years of badger culling no one can now doubt that the policy has been a disastrous failure on scientific, cost and humaneness grounds.

"For the new Defra Secretary Andrea Leadsom to ignore the facts and extend this policy into five new areas of the country defies belief.

"The badger cull is built on three pillars of sand, incompetence, negligence and deceit, and will ultimately collapse because it fails to address the key cause of bovine TB, which is cattle to cattle infection.

"We could kill every badger in England but bovine TB would continue to spread in cattle herds, due to inaccurate TB testing, excessive numbers of cattle movements and poor bio-security controls."

The chairman of the Badger Trust, Peter Martin, said: "The badger is being used as a scapegoat for failures in the modern intensive livestock industry that have led to a significant increase in bovine TB in cattle herds.

"Recent changes to the cull licencing regime have made it clear this policy is now just a numbers game based on indiscriminate and untargeted killing of this protected wildlife species.

"They have abandoned any pretence of science or control.

"We now have conclusive scientific evidence proving beyond doubt that badgers actively avoid cattle in pasture and farm yards, and that cattle avoid feeding on grass where badgers urinate or defecate.

"This effectively means that the likelihood of badgers passing TB to cattle within the farming environment is so low that it is impossible to distinguish it from any other potential environmental vector, including cattle themselves."

He added: "By extending the badger culls to five new areas of the country the taxpayer is now facing a bill in the region of £100 million by 2020 on a policy which will fail to deliver any significant reduction in bovine TB for livestock farmers."save the innocent badger

Discovery of potentially Earth-like planet Proxima b raises hopes for life

The search for life outside our solar system has been brought to our cosmic doorstep with the discovery of an apparently rocky planet orbiting the nearest star to our sun.

Thought to be at least 1.3 times the mass of the Earth, the planet lies within the so-called “habitable zone” of the star Proxima Centauri, meaning that liquid water could potentially exist on the newly discovered world.

Analysis Proxima b will be our prime laboratory in the search for extraterrestrial life

The discovery of a rocky planet in the habitable zone around our sun’s nearest star is just the beginning of decades of intense research and exploration

 

Read more

Named Proxima b, the new planet has sparked a flurry of excitement among astrophysicists, with the tantalising possibility that it might be similar in crucial respects to Earth.

“There is a reasonable expectation that this planet might be able to host life, yes,” said Guillem Anglada-Escudé, co-author of the research from Queen Mary, University of London.-read more

Marine biologist Chris Brown, who works at the Sea Life Adventure Park in Weymouth, spotted the heavily-pregnant male Spiny Seahorse last weekend.

The Spiny Seahorse, which is also known by the scientific name Hippocampus guttulatus, is the largest of the two native species to the British Isles.

It is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.read more

food banks

its a sad sign of the times that people need to go too food banks due to lack of cash or other hardships .yet to my surprise and disbelief people rather starve due to the stigma or too proud to ask both stupid reasons in my book,as if you need food to keep going and the reasons mentioned don't put food on your plate.so make a leap of faith and find out who too contact in your local area and get a voucher and go ,one is in holsworthy and yes i have needed it myself.